Growing up I owned a good amount of reptiles (turtles, iguanas, anoles etc) but that was when I was a kid.

I'm now approaching 30 and looking to get a new pet(s). I've considered getting a dog or cat but thats sorta cliche and kinda wanna get a cool lizard.

I'm thinking either a leopard gecko or a bearded dragon. I've read up on both of them and they seem like they would be pretty easy to take care of. The downside to a bearded dragon is that they get huge and eat a TON. But the upside is that they are friendly/docile creatures that like human interaction.

Leopard Geckos dont eat as much and are also docile/friendly but they are nocturnal and usually only come out at night(spend most of their days hiding/sleeping)

Has anyone here owned a gecko or bearded dragon? Any advice would be great! THanks

I caught a savannah monitor near a garbage dumpster of a McDonalds I used to work at years ago. It had a harness on it...looked like somebody liked to keep him tied up outside or something and he escaped.
It was mid-October when I caught him. It was pretty cool outside so the thing was sluggish and slow. I picked it up and saw that it had guts or something hanging out of it's anus. I figured it got ran over by a car or something.
I took it to a vet to see if he could fix it and adopt it out. I told my BIL about it and he was eager to adopt it so I got back in touch with the vet. He had just finished performing surgery on it and said it was doing fine now. Apparently when those big reptiles spend their whole lives in a relatively small space their muscles atrophy to a degree and, when they manage to get out in the world, they push themselves too hard and rupture or herniate something (he claimed it wasn't an uncommon thing to see).
I drove back to the vet to pick it up so I could deliver it to my BIL. When the vet came out with the monitor in a box, the box was shaking VIOLENTLY. You could hear the thing in there scrambling around like mad, just trying to get out.
I took the lizard to my FIL, where my BIL was going to pick it up, and opened the box to take it out. The lizard was sitting in the bottom of the box, just staring at me calmly. I reached down to pick it up and the SOB jumped up, like lightning, and clamped down on my hand. It felt like my hand was snagged by a large pair of HOT pliers. I wouldn't have imagined it hurting as bad as it did. I immediately regretted my decision to try to save this creature's life.
Managed to get it into a cage and it let go of my hand as soon as its feet hit the bottom of the cage. My hand was bleeding pretty bad and the lizard had blood all over its mouth....looked like it had just came back from a fresh kill.
BIL came and got the lizard. Took it home to Arkansas and kept it for many years before it passed away. He told me that it never bit him once.
Since that day I have handled exactly ZERO savannah monitor lizards.

I caught a savannah monitor near a garbage dumpster of a McDonalds I used to work at years ago. It had a harness on it...looked like somebody liked to keep him tied up outside or something and he escaped.
It was mid-October when I caught him. It was pretty cool outside so the thing was sluggish and slow. I picked it up and saw that it had guts or something hanging out of it's anus. I figured it got ran over by a car or something.
I took it to a vet to see if he could fix it and adopt it out. I told my BIL about it and he was eager to adopt it so I got back in touch with the vet. He had just finished performing surgery on it and said it was doing fine now. Apparently when those big reptiles spend their whole lives in a relatively small space their muscles atrophy to a degree and, when they manage to get out in the world, they push themselves too hard and rupture or herniate something (he claimed it wasn't an uncommon thing to see).
I drove back to the vet to pick it up so I could deliver it to my BIL. When the vet came out with the monitor in a box, the box was shaking VIOLENTLY. You could hear the thing in there scrambling around like mad, just trying to get out.
I took the lizard to my FIL, where my BIL was going to pick it up, and opened the box to take it out. The lizard was sitting in the bottom of the box, just staring at me calmly. I reached down to pick it up and the SOB jumped up, like lightning, and clamped down on my hand. It felt like my hand was snagged by a large pair of HOT pliers. I wouldn't have imagined it hurting as bad as it did. I immediately regretted my decision to try to save this creature's life.
Managed to get it into a cage and it let go of my hand as soon as its feet hit the bottom of the cage. My hand was bleeding pretty bad and the lizard had blood all over its mouth....looked like it had just came back from a fresh kill.
BIL came and got the lizard. Took it home to Arkansas and kept it for many years before it passed away. He told me that it never bit him once.
Since that day I have handled exactly ZERO savannah monitor lizards.

It is called a prolapse and it is actually quite common in the larger lizards. It can happen as a result of an impaction, pushing too hard, or simply not enough exercise. It is usually remedied by putting in slowly dissolving sutures.

It is called a prolapse and it is actually quite common in the larger lizards. It can happen as a result of an impaction, pushing too hard, or simply not enough exercise. It is usually remedied by putting in slowly dissolving sutures.

The vet went right to work on it.... guess he'd had experience with it. I do recall now that he also used the word 'prolapse'.

I also remember the vet bill was under $50. That surprised me..... seemed cheap for surgery.

The vet went right to work on it.... guess he'd had experience with it. I do recall now that he also used the word 'prolapse'.

I also remember the vet bill was under $50. That surprised me..... seemed cheap for surgery.

Well it wasn't really a surgery. The vet would have just pushed it back in and put in a few small sutures around the vent and that is it. Probably used a little tiny bit of sedative as well. But the whole thing probably took the vet 5-10 minutes. Props to your for saving it though, despite the fact that it bit you.

That is just creepy as hell, especially after reading about some of the stuff earlier in this thread. I was waiting for it to snap that guys throat.

When I was a little kid, I caught a horny toad right out on the sidewalk, but it died. I think they are pretty well extinct now, right?

__________________Chiefnj2: "Sure it's hard to do, that's why you need an elite QB. Just like its hard to lead your team to a victory from a 4 score deficit. Some guys can do it, others get traded to the Chiefs."

Also note that if you get into Bearded Dragons, there's lots of different colors and varieties. From yellows to bright reds. They're much more expensive than the normal ones you find at local shops. But if you get one and breed it, you can sell the babies for really good money.

You have some very interesting ideas on pets. Didn't you also keep racoons?

__________________Chiefnj2: "Sure it's hard to do, that's why you need an elite QB. Just like its hard to lead your team to a victory from a 4 score deficit. Some guys can do it, others get traded to the Chiefs."

I have owned three American alligators in my life time. Loved them as pets but my wife put her foot down when we had our son. Keep them in my basement of my bachelor pad and the biggest got to be about 7ft.

I have owned three American alligators in my life time. Loved them as pets but my wife put her foot down when we had our son. Keep them in my basement of my bachelor pad and the biggest got to be about 7ft.